Governor Godwin Obaseki says his administration has employed more than 1,000 teachers.

Mr Obaseki hired the teachers under the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation scheme.

The governor, who disclosed this on Tuesday in Benin, explained that the new teachers were to help in strengthening teaching and learning in schools across the 18 local government areas.

“Our priority programme is based on education, and for this reason, in April 2018, we launched EdoBEST and trained the first batch of teachers, and today their presentation has shown how different our teachers are,“ said the governor.

Mr Obaseki explained that government would start the refurbishment of another 1,000 classrooms across the state in the next few weeks.

“We have provided more than 40,000 pieces of furniture and putting more as we have made a commitment that no child will sit on the ground to receive lessons,” he stated. “We also have in addition provided over 8.5 million learning materials in our schools and will continue to invest in our schools.”

Earlier, the State Chairman of the Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Joan Osa-Oviawe, commended the Obaseki-led administration for its commitment to the education sector in the last four years.

“This is the first batch of the EdoSTAR fellows; in all, we are expected to recruit 3,000 fellows into our basic schools. You are going to undergo an onboarding process that will include rigorous training like what EdoBEST teachers went through,” explained Ms Osa-Oviawe. “The training is a two-week professional programme which will be based on pupil motivation and classrooms management techniques.”

(NAN)